Genetic diversity study in germplasm lines of sesamum (Sesamum indicum L.)

Abstract

Genetic diversity is an important factor for any crop which paves a way for its improvement and selection and divergent gemplasm serve as source to obtain the highly diversified parents which possess desirable traits to improve the valuable traits which are useful to mankind. Totally 270 germplasm lines were selected to study the genetic diversity using Mahalanobis D2 statistics. Six biometrical traits viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of primary branches per plant, number of capsules per plant and seed yield per plant were used for clustering using Tocher’s method and sixteen clusters were obtained. Out of sixteen clusters, cluster XIV and XV found to be highly divergent clusters as they showed highest inter-cluster distance and clusters II and V were the least divergent clusters which possess genotypes which are closely related. The highest cluster mean was observed in cluster XIV for the trait seed yield per plant and it is highest for the cluster XI for days to 50% flowering, cluster V for days to maturity, cluster II and XIII for plant height and cluster XV for primary branches per plant and capsules per plant. Based on the highest cluster mean of the particular trait, the genotypes can be selected from those clusters to produce the superior combinations to improve yield and oil content in sesamum.